Who’s The Hunter…Who’s The Game?

By Phil Hecken

At now, at long last, the “Redesign the Washington Football Club” contest has ended — and in the end, it wasn’t even close. After cruising to a victory in the “Top 10,” Brittain Peck easily won the finals with a whopping 27% of the votes cast. In all, there were more than 3,000 votes were tabulated, and Brittain cruised with 835 of them. Congratulations Brittain. If you want a quick refresher of Brittain’s winning submission, look here and scroll down to the first entry.

I followed up with Brittain and he’s been busy still with his uniform creation. He also wanted to say a few words to all you readers.

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Uni Watch: Congratulations Brittain. Your design was chosen by a huge number of readers. Thanks for participating.

Brittain Peck: I’d like to thank you and everyone at Uni Watch for running the Redskins redesign contest. I not only think it is a great idea and helps draw attention to an important cause of social relevance, but I am also honored to be able to participate and to have been selected as the winner.

UW: Many readers may recognize your name. Have you been reading the blog long?

BP: I have read the blog for years but have never participated in any of the contests or comment threads until now. Participating in this contest has also given me to opportunity to interact with the Uni Watch community in a much more in depth way.

UW: Well, your “Whiteskins” article (plus the Rename the Washington/Cleveland contests) have certainly generated a lot of interaction.

BP: I am genuinely impressed with the degree of meaningful insight and commentary that the contributors convey in their comments as well as the level of respect for each other that they display. People are able to express their honest opinions without devolving into name calling and offensive nonsense.

UW: Most of the time. But you certainly hit a chord with your article. Even though a lot of people have very strong opinions on the subject matter of Native American names and imagery, I’d say it has been a pretty respectful (if spirited) interchange of ideas.

BP: Perhaps this is result of you and Paul doing a great job of policing and editing the comments sections, and if so, you are doing a wondering job of creating an environment where constructive and meaning ideas serve to compliment what is already superb content.

UW: Thanks — but we don’t ever edit the comments sections. Readers have their say and we let them. No one is ever right when “opinion” is involved. Anyway, lets talk about this contest.

BP: Out of excitement over advancing to the finals of the contest and because I enjoy seeing ideas through as far as I am able to, I have developed some additional images of my Warriors concept based upon the uniform details which Nike presented for each of the NFL teams new 2012 uniforms.

UW: Yes, I’m going to post them below. We’ll start with the full concept:

BP: This is the concept with the “Nike” template.

UW: And now the details (click on each image to enlarge):

BP: First image show the shoulder stripe detail with three stars reminiscent of the flag of Washington D.C. and military rank insignia. Middle image has the chest detail with alternate \\* logo embroidered as “badge of honor” on upper left chest. Final image is the pant stripe detail.

UW: Nice! A couple of questions seem to have come up already. Why not keep red/burgundy as the primary color of the home uniform?

BP: I view the use of the color red by teams such as the Redskins and Chiefs as a symbolic representation of (at best) American Indian culture and (at worst) an exaggerated depiction of a generalized American Indian skin complexion. Why else do the Redskins, Chiefs, and other teams that use offensive American Indian names and imagery so frequently use red? As a result, I see this use of the color red as an offensive symbol which, like the name “Redskins”, must be addressed and, as in my design, limited in it’s use. I had considered making the home jersey red, but looked for another option because of this reason.

UW: What’s the deal with BFBS?

BP: The palette of Washington Warriors in my proposal does not include black, but instead consists of a drab tan, deep red, charcoal gray, and yellow in rare usage in the alternate uniform. The use of gray is not merely gratuitous but is done as part of the team color palette. I intentionally chose charcoal gray over black to 1) avoid falling into the trendiness of relying on black 2) to be the only team in the league to use charcoal gray in their uniforms (not silver) and 3) because of the association between charcoal gray and military equipment.

UW: Obviously, you were the winner by a large margin. Any more thoughts? How about those who had some critiques?

BP: I have also noticed that a few readers have some very constructive and valid criticisms of my design. I am interested in replying to these comments but do not want to do so in any way that may seem overly defensive or reactionary.

UW: Well, perhaps you’ll get some more comments today.

BP: I value the feedback that has already been given and would love to encourage more to be given by volunteering more in depth explanations of my thought process so that people are able to critique it in similar fashion.

UW: Sounds good. I’ll ask the readers for their feedback. Congratulations again, and thanks for participating!

BP: Thanks again for all of your work and for your time in reading and responding.

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And there you have it, dear readers. I’m sure a lot of you (myself included) are grateful we’re ending (at least for now) the examination of Native American imagery on professional (and college) sports uniforms. But let’s hear it for Brittain (and all the participants) for a job well done. And please, if you guys have any criticisms, positive or negative, of Brittain’s designs, he’d love to have the feedback.

I want to thank each and every reader and commenter for keeping these discussions professional and for keeping your comments (no matter what your feelings on the subject matter) passionate and spirited, but respectful just the same. To borrow a phrase from Paul, “you’re all aces”!

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One good thing about interplague…Monarchs vs. Grays

Last evening, in a game I unfortunately did not see, the Kansas City Royals, playing as the Kansas City Monarchs, hooked up in an old-fashioned, interleague Negro League throwback game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were playing as the Homestead Grays. Both teams have done Negro League throwback games before, and this one looked great.

The Homestead Grays have had numerous uniforms throughout their history (you can see many images here, but the design worn last night is not only my most favorite of the Grays unis, but one of my all time favorite baseball uniforms of ALL TIME. I really wish some team would break out that uniform today — maybe the Nats? In fact, R. Scott Rogers (arr scott) even concepted that uniform on UW a while back. How effin great would that look?

The KC Monarchs also had a long and storied uniform history (in fact the Negro League Baseball Museum is located in Kansas City) as well. You can check out some of their unis here. What they wore last night is another uni I really like, although I’m not sure what was up with the blue shoes. I’m pretty sure those weren’t period authentic. But the rest of the uniform, from the red pocket flaps right down to the belt tunnels, are just gorgeous. That’s another uniform I think would look great on an MLB team today.

From the pictures I saw, it looked like everybody wore proper pant blousing and socks. Only complaint, and it’s ever so minor, is the modern helmets. But, since teams in the negro leagues didn’t wear helmets, it’s hard to fault the clubs for not having a *special* helmet created just for the game.

I didn’t see any makers marks on the uniforms, so I can only assume these weren’t Majestic — but no matter who manufactured them — top notch job.

If every interleague game looked like this — I think I could handle a lot more of them.

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Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Bit of a smaller set today, mostly featuring John Turney, who has been sending me a bunch lately. I’ll run a few of his and then we’ll have one more artist.

But here’s John, who centers on “kids playing football” this week (click on each to enlarge):

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Just as as to colors . . . but rarely see purple in old days so I chose that. Colorized then filtered with Poloroid filter. Also an orange version.

. . .

On the left, one of the Life collection photos. On the right, second color scheme. Just used a replace color tool to make changes. Both were done in Photoshop and then enhanced with Alien Skin Exposure to make the colors pop. Bottom, just for fun, blue.

Thanks John!

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And we conclude today with Pete Woychick, who has an old baseball shot:

Hi Phil””
I found this photo on the Smithsonian website. ( Original here: “Anacostia Aztecs baseball players (Berry, Johnson, Scott) sitting in dugout.” circa 1940-1949.)

I found mentions of Alexandria, VA and Anacostia AC (“athletic club,” I suppose); that’s a W on the caps (Washington, D.C.?). In the absence of further info, I decided a color scheme of burnt orange and black, on cream-colored flannels, seemed somewhat Aztec-y. I apologize if the team nickname and warm-up patch inadvertently re-open the Chief Wahoo debate.

Cheers!
””Pete

Thanks Pete!

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That’s it for “Colorize This!” today. Back with more next time.

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Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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Wow, what an amazing couple of days…

Click to enlarge

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Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

Today there are a couple more gents who don’t think the Nets got it quite right.

And so, lets begin:

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We start off today with Wes Kull, who has a somewhat lengthy description (which he had sent to Paul, who forwarded it to me):

This is Wes, the guy behind Gridiron League. I really enjoyed reading your coverage of the new (albeit underwhelming) Nike uniforms, and on the new Brooklyn Nets logo. I agree with all of your points on the new arena and marketing campaign, and wanted to share with you a quick post I did about the new logo with an ever-so-slightly revised mark. Instead of starting from scratch, I wanted to show how close Jay Z and co. came to hitting the mark, and with just a little more work, might have really made this a breakthrough sports franchise identity and campaign. I even made the ‘B’ more bold, as per your suggestion. Would love to know your thoughts!
–Wes Kull

Link here.

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And we close with Justin Myslinsky, who has a whole Nets set:

Here is my concept of the BROOKLYN NETS. Hope you enjoy, also thanks for the Cleveland Re-Design, making the finals was very cool, i look forward to more contests in the future.
–Justin Myslinsky

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That’s it for today. Back with more next time.

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London Calling…Olympics Uni Reporters…

As many of you are no doubt aware, the London Summer Games are about a month and a half away.

As many of you also know, Paul takes his UW hiatus towards the end of July (give or take, depending upon my availability to come off the bench to pinch hit for his weekdays). As fate would have it this year, both the Olympics and Paul’s hiatus will take place simultaneously.

So — I’m calling upon the Uni Watch faithful who have an interest in the sports of the XXXth Olympiad (scheduled to take place between the 27th of July and the 12th of August) and would like to serve as “uni correspondents” — please drop me a line. Specifically, I’m looking for those of you who’d like to take a look at the uniforms for a specific event — whether it be a team sport or an individual one. I’d love to do both breakdowns of what the current teams (if a team sport) will be wearing for the games AND what teams have worn in past Olympics. This can be for an entire sport (for example, basketball) or a historical look-back at uniforms worn by one nation throughout the 100+ years of the games.

I’ve already got a correspondent for men’s football (soccer) — one Mr. George Chilvers, who will be attending several matches (sorry Mr. Vilk — I have to give the hometown lad preference) and one Mr. Morris Levin, who’ll be looking back at baseball (no longer a sanctioned sport). But that leaves about fifty-cajillion other disciplines to be covered, including such favorites as basketball, synchronized swimming and sprint canoeing.

If you’re interested in covering a sport in an article to be featured during the games — or have an idea for an olympic angle — let me know. OK? OK!

Yesterday I received six or seven interested reader inquiries, but I could still use a few more correspondents — it’s going to be a really nice week or so of Olympic uniform coverage here on Uni Watch — lets make it the best coverage on the Interwebs!

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And Finally…

Pretty big day in sports yesterday (Belmont, Ladies French Open finals, the Heat edged the Celtics to move on to the NBA finals, and the Devils staved off elimination on the ice — plus all the Interplague)…you’ve got the Men’s Finals this morning in the French. I know many, if not most, of you are not tennis fans — but it’s going to be a huge match — Rafael Nadal, king of the red clay (and hoping to win a record SEVEN French Opens) plays Novak Djokovic, who hasn’t lost a grand slam match in like 50 years (actually, he hasn’t lost since last year’s French Open, so if he wins today, he’ll not only have the “career grand slam” but he’ll pull off the extremely rare feat of holding all four grand slam titles at once). And yesterday, the lovely Maria Sharapova also acheived the “career grand slam.” So, if you find yourself with nothing to do at 9:00 am (Eastern time), turn on NBC and watch. You just might like it.

Everyone have a great Sunday — make sure you give Brittain some feedback on his design — and I’ll catch you next weekend. If you want to be an Olympic correspondent, don’t forget to give me a shout. Peace.

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“Benchies is easily one of the ten best comic strips being produced in the world right now. Shame that like most of the other nine, you won’t find it in your local newspaper.”
— R. Scott Rogers